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23 May 2016

Baby Comparisons, Book Rediscoveries

You know what's fun? Comparing children.

Everett, 7.5mos

Gabriel, 6mos

For the most part I don't think that Gabriel and Everett look THAT much alike. They share the basic features of a cute baby (CHEEEEEKS, mainly), and they have the shared vague ethnicity of being half black, but I think that Gabriel looks a LOT like his dad, and Everett looks a LOT like HIS dad, and, despite Gabriel's third grade teacher*, their dads really look nothing alike.

*Gabriel's third grade teacher could not tell Gabe's dad apart from Quentin. Despite the fact that share no facial features, have very different builds, different hair, beardedness versus not, glasses versus not, Gabriel calls one of them "dad" and one of them "Quentin", etc. etc. Literally the only feature they share is blackness. THEY HAVE TOTALLY DISSIMILAR FACES.

Anyway, sometimes, like in the pictures above, I DO think they look a lot alike, and then I think maybe they look more like me than I generally THINK they do, I guess.

I went stand up paddle boarding for the first time yesterday! It was not as difficult as I was expecting it to be.
I have very poor balance; I go all wobbly when I'm asked to stand on one foot in yoga, and standing on a thing that is on the (very wobbly) water, seemed like something that I would definitely not....excel at. Well. I didn't excel at it, to be sure, but I was not terrible! I fell in once, on dismount, but otherwise stayed upright and afloat.
My feet are sore from it though. You somehow end up using all the muscles in your feet to stay balanced and not too wobbly.

Gabriel got the fifth Harry Potter book on CD from the library. He's read all of them, and seen all the movies, I suppose this is the next step in his Harry Potter vision quest.
I read all the books, but as they came out, so it's been.....well it's been years.
The audio versions are EXCELLENT. I normally hate audiobooks because well, they read it ALL WRONG. The Harry Potter ones are read in EXACTLY THE RIGHT WAY, with the RIGHT voices. I'm getting sucked back in. I want to reread the series now.
And sit down and watch all the movies. I've only seen the first movie straight through. I've seen bits and pieces of the other ones, but I haven't sat down and ACTUALLY WATCHED them.
I'm inspired!
A pretty cool thing about having a 10yo is rediscovering and rereading books. I recently reread My Friend Flicka, and wept a lot. I got it for my nephew, who is very into horses, and very frustrated by how girly all things horses are.
Why is that, do we think?
It doesn't SEEM like horses should be a Girl Thing, does it? Or a Boy Thing for that matter.

How interesting: I never thought about why horses seem like a Girl Interest. I can't think of anything about them that seems like it would appeal to girls. And yet...when I think about horses, and horse merchandise, and horse camps, I think of GIRLS.

My nephew is the ONLY boy at his horse riding lessons/camp/activities. It is his One True Love, but it's so solidly considered 'girl'. And it's so weird! WHY is it a girl thing? What's intrinsically ladylike about RIDING A HORSE? I mean, dog ownership and adoration seems fairly gender neutral...

Try the Black Stallion series for your nephew. The protagonist is a boy. (And the books are much, much better than the 70s movie.) I love the Harry Potter audiobooks! Jim Dale does such a great job. We're very excited about the Fantastic Beasts movie coming out this fall.